The effects of chemicals in isopods : a multi-organizational evaluation

The global aim of this thesis was to evaluate and assess the effects of a pesticide (dimethoate) and a metal (nickel), as model chemicals, within different organization levels, starting at the detoxification pathways (enzymatic biomarkers) and energy costs associated (energy content quantification, energy consumption and CEA) along with the physiological alterations at the individual and population level (mortality), leading to a metabolomic analysis (using liquid 1H-NMR) and finally a gene expression analysis (transcriptome and RT-qPCR analysis). To better understand potential variations in response to stressors, abiotic factors were also assessed in terrestrial isopods such as temperature, soil moisture and UV radiation. The evaluation performed using biochemical biomarkers and energy related parameters showed that increases in temperature might negatively affect the organisms by generating oxidative stress. It also showed that this species is acclimated to environments with low soil moisture, and that in high moisture scenarios there was a short gap between the optimal and adverse conditions that led to increased mortality. As for UV-R, doses nowadays present have shown to induce significant negative impact on these organisms. The long-term exposure to dimethoate showed that besides the neurotoxicity resulting from acetylcholinesterase inhibition, this stressor also caused oxidative stress. This effect was observed for both concentrations used (recommended field dose application and a below EC50 value) and that its combination with different temperatures (20ºC and 25ºC) showed different response patterns. It was also observed that dimethoate’s degradation rate in soils was higher in the presence of isopods. In a similar study performed with nickel, oxidative stress was also observed. But, in the case of this stressor exposure, organisms showed a strategy where the energetic costs necessary for detoxification (biomarkers) seemed to be compensated by positive alterations in the energy related parameters. In this work we presented for the first time a metabolomic profile of terrestrial isopods exposed to stressors (dimethoate and niquel), since until the moment only a previous study was performed on a metabolomic evaluation in nonexposed isopods. In the first part of the study we identify 24 new metabolites that had not been described previously. On the second part of the study a metabolomic profile variation of abstract non-exposed organism throughout the exposure was presented and finally the metabolomic profile of organisms exposed to dimethoate and nickel. The exposure to nickel suggested alteration in growth, moult, haemocyanin and glutathione synthesis, energy pathways and in osmoregulation. As for the exposure to dimethoate alterations in osmoregulation, energy pathways, moult and neurotransmission were also suggested. In this work it was also presented the first full body transcriptome of a terrestrial isopod from the species Porcellionides pruinosus, which will complement the scarce information available for this group of organisms. This transcriptome also served as base for a RNA-Seq and a RT-qPCR analysis. The results of the RNA-Seq analysis performed in organisms exposed to nickel showed that this stressor negatively impacted at the genetic and epigenetic levels, in the trafficking, storage and elimination of metals, generates oxidative stress, inducing neurotoxicity and also affecting reproduction. These results were confirmed through RT-qPCR. As for the impact of dimethoate on these organisms it was only accessed through RT-qPCR and showed oxidative stress, an impact in neurotransmission, in epigenetic markers, DNA repair and cell cycle impairment. This study allowed the design of an Adverse Outcome Pathway draft that can be used further on for legislative purposes.

Generation Y : affektives Commitment von Mitarbeitern in Unternehmen der Metropolregion Hannover-Braunschweig Göttingen Wolfsburg

Vertreter der Generation Y, Personen, die in den 1980er Jahren geboren wurden, drängen verstärkt in den Arbeitsmarkt. Ihre Wert- und Erwartungshaltung ist deshalb von großem Interesse für Unternehmen, die mit Themen wie dem Fachkräftemangel und demografischen Wandel konfrontiert sind und die Leistungsträger langfristig binden müssen. Ziel dieser Hausarbeit ist herauszufinden, wie ausgeprägt die emotionale Bindung der Generation Y in Unternehmen allgemein ist und unter welcher Voraussetzung affektives Commitment bei der Generation Y entsteht. Ein weiteres Ziel ist die Erarbeitung von Handlungsempfehlungen bezüglich des Personalmanagements von Generation Y in Unternehmen. Generation Y hat hohe Erwartungen an Arbeitsinhalt, Selbstverwirklichungsmöglichkeiten, Aus- und Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen, Unternehmenswerte und -ethik, Sinnhaftigkeit der Tätigkeit und Teamarbeit. Vertreter dieser Generation wünschen sich Wertschätzung, eine gute Beziehung zum Vorgesetzten, viele Partizipationsmöglichkeiten, regelmäßiges Feedback und Flexibilität. Weiterhin sind Work-Life-Balance, Karriereoptionen, Einkommen, digitale Vernetzung und Arbeitsplatzsicherheit wichtige Themen für diese Generation. Affektives Commitment entsteht durch Erfüllung von Erwartungen. Generation Y ist nur bedingt affektiv gebunden, tendiert zu häufigen Unternehmenswechseln und ist durch eine schwache Loyalität gekennzeichnet. Dies liegt hauptsächlich daran, dass die Erwartungen dieser Generation nicht erfüllt werden. Es wird empfohlen HR-Maßnahmen zu implementieren, die auf Erfüllung der Erwartungen von Generation Y abzielen.

Generation Y: Arbeitsbezogene Erwartungen und affektives Commitment

Die Erwartungen der Generation Y zu kennen, ist wichtig für Unternehmen, die Leistungsträger aus dieser Generation langfristig binden wollen. Die affektive Bindung der Generation Y gegenüber einer Organisation, der Zusammenhang zwischen der Erfüllung arbeitsbezogener Erwartungen und affektivem Commitment sowie der Fluktuationsneigung der Generation Y werden empirisch überprüft. Die Generation Y hat hohe Erwartungen an Unternehmenswerte und Unternehmenskultur. Es wurden Zusammenhänge zwischen der Erfüllung von Erwartungen und der affektiven Bindung gegenüber einer Organisation gefunden. Es wird empfohlen Personalmanagementmaßnahmen zu implementieren, die passgenau auf die Erfüllung der Erwartungen der Generation Y ausgerichtet sind.

Reform, Standards and Teacher Identity: Challenges of Sustaining Commitment

Teacher commitment has been found to be a critical predictor of teachers’ work performance, absenteeism, retention, burnout and turnover, as well as having an important influence on students’ motivation, achievement, attitudes towards learning and being at school (Firestone (1996). Educational Administration Quarterly, 32(2), 209–235; Graham (1996). Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 67(1), 45–47; Louis (1998). School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 9(1), 1–27; Tsui & Cheng (1999). Educational Research and Evaluation, 5(3), 249–268). It is also a necessary ingredient to the successful implementation, adaptation or resistance reform agendas. Surprisingly, however, the relationship between teachers’ motivation, efficacy, job satisfaction and commitment, and between commitment and the quality of their work has not been the subject of extensive research. Some literature presents commitment as a feature of being and behaving as a professional (Helsby, Knight, McCulloch, Saunders, & Warburton (1997). A report to participants on the professional cultures of Teachers Research Project, Lancaster University, January). Others suggest that it fluctuates according to personal, institutional and policy contexts (Louis (1998). School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 9(1), 1–27) and identify different dimensions of commitment which interact and fluctuate (Tyree (1996). Journal of Educational Research, 89(5), 295–304). Others claim that teachers’ commitment tends to decrease progressively over the course of the teaching career (Fraser, Draper, & Taylor (1998). Evaluation and Research in Education, 12 (2), 61–71; Huberman (1993). The lives of teachers. London: Cassell). In this research, experienced teachers in England and Australia were interviewed about their understandings of commitment. The data suggest that commitment may be better understood as a nested phenomena at the centre of which is a set of core, relatively permanent values based upon personal beliefs, images of self, role and identity which are subject to challenge by change which is socio-politically constructed.

Social Capital in Inter-Organizational Partnership Research

This chapter focuses on the use of social capital as a construct to examine and explain the formation and operation of inter-organizational partnerships. In particular it shows how social capital contributes to the sustainability of a public sector partnership. In this research context social capital is defined as the networks, trust, norms and values that enable individuals and organizations to achieve mutual goals through collaboration. This definition draws upon the author’s empirical research on partnerships and partnership working in the field of post-compulsory education and her practical experience of establishing, managing and leading international partnerships for teaching and research in teacher education. The emphasis is on the practical application of social capital to qualitative data and on identifying sources of evidence, including research literature from different disciplines in the social sciences to interpret and theorize primary data. The first section of the chapter considers the complexities of defining social capital in the context of rival theoretical and political perspectives and leads to a discussion of the dimensions of social capital that are found in effective and sustained partnerships.

Knowledge creation: revisiting the 'ba' humbug people and 'latent' knowledge in organizational learning

Knowledge management theory has struggled with the concept of `knowledge creation'. Since the seminal article of Nonaka in 1991, an industry has grown up seeking to capture the knowledge in the heads and hearts of individuals so as to leverage them for organizational learning and growth. But the process of Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization (SECI) outlined by Nonaka and his colleagues has essentially dealt with knowledge transfer rather than knowledge creation. This paper attempts to fill the gap in the process - from Nonaka's own addition of the need for "ba" to Snowden's suggestion of that we consider "Cynefin" as a space for knowledge creation. Drawing upon a much older theoretical frame - work the Johari Window developed in group dynamics, this paper suggests an alternative concept - latent knowledge - and introduces a different model for the process of knowledge creation.

Role Ambiguity and Perceived Organizational Politics in Wolf Recovery: Washington State Wildlife Agency Personnel Perspectives

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015-12

O Contributo do sistema SAP R/3 no controlo interno na REFER

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Auditoria Orientador: Mestre Agostinho Sousa Pinto

Optimization model for medium term natural gas commitment

In this paper we study the optimal natural gas commitment for a known demand scenario. This study implies the best location of GSUs to supply all demands and the optimal allocation from sources to gas loads, through an appropriate transportation mode, in order to minimize total system costs. Our emphasis is on the formulation and use of a suitable optimization model, reflecting real-world operations and the constraints of natural gas systems. The mathematical model is based on a Lagrangean heuristic, using the Lagrangean relaxation, an efficient approach to solve the problem. Computational results are presented for Iberian and American natural gas systems, geographically organized in 65 and 88 load nodes, respectively. The location model results, supported by the computational application GasView, show the optimal location and allocation solution, system total costs and suggest a suitable gas transportation mode, presented in both numerical and graphic supports.

Resistência à mudança organizacional : um estudo de caso

Dissertação de Mestrado em Gestão de Empresas/MBA.

O endomarketing como factor de sucesso nas organizações: o impacto no empenhamento e na satisfação dos clientes internos da empresa PT PRO

A literatura descreve que as ações de endomarketing contribuem para a aproximação, interação e o bom relacionamento entre a empresa e os colaboradores. Sendo caracterizada como uma relação de troca, na qual a empresa fornece instrumentos capazes de promover o interesse dos colaboradores a participarem mais ativamente em toda a envolvente organizacional - através de ações que favoreçam o diálogo, sugestões, partilha de conhecimentos e informações, bem como relatos de situações corriqueiras ocorridas no dia-a-dia da empresa. Em contrapartida, à medida que o colaborador se sente valorizado pela empresa e pelos colegas, passa a perceber a importância do seu trabalho dentro da organização, permitindo que identifique o trabalho como algo prazeroso. Esta troca contribui para a produtividade e desenvolvimento da empresa, bem como a satisfação e empenhamento dos colaboradores no trabalho. Neste sentido, visando averiguar como esta situação é vivenciada na prática decidiu-se pela realização de um estágio, tendo como questão de estudo qual o impacto das ações de endomarketing no empenhamento e na satisfação dos clientes internos da PT PRO? Para responder a tal indagação foi realizado um estágio na empresa PT PRO, nomeadamente na Direção de Desenvolvimento de Mercado, Marketing e Formação. Apresentam-se ao longo do presente relatório a descrição das especificidades do estágio, tal como as principais ilações daí retiradas tendo através de pesquisas documentais (arquivo e documentos internos e Intranet), reuniões com a Direção de Marketing e com a tutora do estágio, tal como pela aplicação e análise de um inquérito por questionário aplicado aos colaboradores, chegando-se à conclusão que, de facto, as ações de endomarketing levadas a cabo pela empresa contribuem para o empenhamento e satisfação dos colaboradores.

A new MILP based approach for unit commitment in power production planning

This paper presents a complete, quadratic programming formulation of the standard thermal unit commitment problem in power generation planning, together with a novel iterative optimisation algorithm for its solution. The algorithm, based on a mixed-integer formulation of the problem, considers piecewise linear approximations of the quadratic fuel cost function that are dynamically updated in an iterative way, converging to the optimum; this avoids the requirement of resorting to quadratic programming, making the solution process much quicker. From extensive computational tests on a broad set of benchmark instances of this problem, the algorithm was found to be flexible and capable of easily incorporating different problem constraints. Indeed, it is able to tackle ramp constraints, which although very important in practice were rarely considered in previous publications. Most importantly, optimal solutions were obtained for several well-known benchmark instances, including instances of practical relevance, that are not yet known to have been solved to optimality. Computational experiments and their results showed that the method proposed is both simple and extremely effective.

Retaining repatriates: an exploratory study in portuguese companies

This study aims to understand the factors which may explain the retention of repatriates from companies acting within Portugal. These factors can be related either to the individual, or to the work, to the organisation or to non-working contexts. Eight companies located in Portugal have participated in this study. Several semi-structured interviews were done to 16 organizational representatives and to 28 repatriates. The obtained results show that the repatriates’ retention on the visited companies may be influenced by several categories of factors. We can conclude that it is (1) the good relation with the leadership, (2) the recognition of the performed job but, also (3) the seniority, (4) the age and the (5) depressed national job market. These are the major factors that emerge as relevant factors for the retention. Hence, there is not only one category of explaining determining factors for the retention decision, but there are several. These findings will be discussed in detail and implications and suggestions for future research will be proposed as well.

An organizational culture approach to performance in information technology micro-firms

This study aims to analyze and compare micro-firms’ organizational culture related to organizational performance. A case study methodology was used based on four firms, competitors among themselves in the Information Technology business, focusing on the years between 2008-2013. Findings pointed out many similarities to larger firms, but some specificities of micro-firms were found and propositions were defined: clan culture predominance is related to best performing micro-firms; the configuration of several culture types seemed to be the most suitable for obtaining good organizational results, provided that they do not focus only on hierarchy and market types of culture; the market culture predominance perception by employees is associated with low job satisfaction; and, after a certain time in business, micro-firms, as do larger companies, seek to standardize and control processes. Recognizing that organizational culture is considered important to firms’ results, this study sheds some light on that important factor for micro-firms.